SZ: Omar El Manfalouty

Pilot who wants to save people from distress at sea and Europe's values.

By Dunja Ramadan

On normal days, Omar El Manfalouty sits at his desk at Goethe University in Frankfurt. There, the 28-year-old doctoral student of ancient history is researching the ancient understanding of freedom in Christian and Jewish communities. On his days off, El Manfalouty sits in the cockpit of an aeroplane with the Mediterranean Sea below him. Here, too, he is preoccupied with the great questions of freedom. As a pilot, he spends hours searching for people in distress at sea. As a volunteer member of the Swiss initiative Humanitarian Pilots, together with employees of the organisation Sea Watch, he informs state authorities about refugee boats in distress and documents violations of the law.

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